CONWAY, Arkansas – Just three weeks and nine Southland Conference baseball games remain in the 2012 season and the Northwestern State Demons are still attempting to solidfy its spot in the league eight-team postseason tournament.
 
The Demons (16-26, 11-13 SLC) are currently in a tie for seventh place with Stephen F. Austin and will visit Central Arkansas (18-22, 12-12) in a three-game series beginning Saturday at 7 p.m.  The two teams will play a doubleheader beginning at 1 on Sunday to complete the series.  Saturday's game and the first game on Sunday will be broadcast on the Demon Sports Network.
 
NSU dropped two of three to Southeastern Louisiana in its last conference outing and since starting the league season 9-3 and winning its first four Southland series, has dropped its last four series and is struggling through a 2-10 stretch in the last 12 conference games.
 
Meanwhile, UCA has won seven of its last 12 league outings and is positioned in a tie for fifth place with McNeese State.
 
The Demons, who have been struggling lately with starting pitching, changed things up a bit last weekend with the rotation of Mason Melotakis (3-3, 3.05 ERA), Jacob Roark (2-4, 4.86) and Colin Bear (3-6, 4.34) and it seemed to have worked despite going 1-2.  Head coach J.P. Davis will stick with that same lineup this weekend.
 
In the nine starts prior to the SLU series, starting pitching combined to throw 34 innings, a 3.8 per game average, and compiled a combined ERA of 6.35.  The starts also produced 22 base-on-balls only 24 strikeouts.
 
Last weekend's three starts with the Melo-Roark-Bear combination saw the trio combine for 17.1 innings, a 5.7 per game outing, along with a 2.63 ERA.  They also combined to strikeout 12 batters and walked only two.
 
Offensively, the Demons are hitting .254 as a team and led by centerfielder Drew Helenihi's .310 batting average.  Helenihi is the only player on the squad hitting .300 and is ranked third on the team with 16 stolen bases.  Leftfielder Will Watson is batting .299 and is second on the squad with 17 base swipes.
 
The Bears rank second in the Southland with a .285 team batting average and are hitting .292 in conference games only.
 
Four players are hitting .300 or above with Bryan Willson leading the way at .344.  He's followed by Jonathan Davis at .336 and Forrestt Allday with a .333 average.  Wilson is ranked sixth in the league in batting, Davis 10^th and Allday 11^th.
 
On the mound, UCA will roll out LHP Jeffery Enloe (4-5, 4.55 ERA), RHP Caleb McClanahan (4-3, 3.91) and RHP Ryan Angus (3-6, 5.72). 
 
The Bears are 14-7 at home this season and 10-2 in conference games with their two losses coming at the hands of Texas-San Antonio and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.  In addition, the road has not been kind to the Demons this season as they've won just four contests away from home in 19 tries and is 2-7 in SLC away games.
 
Following the weekend series, the Demons will return home on May 9 when they host Louisiana Tech.